Cassandra's Eye: a BIC Collection
by J. Maria
Summary: Moments coming in the past and the future of the Protector of the Weak & Sarmatian Ladies series.  A BIC challenge piece.
1. Works in Mysterious Ways: 22 for 22

Series:22 for 22  
Title: Works in Mysterious Ways  
Author: Jmaria  
Rating: FR-15  
Disclaimer: Joss owns Dawn, Bruckheimer & Fuqua own Dagonet, and CBS owns Joan. God owns her/him self. I own nothing, save the plot.  
Fandom(s): Buffy the Vampire Slayer/King Arthur/Joan of Arcadia  
Character(s): Dagonet, Dawn, God, Joan  
Spoilers: Season Seven of Buffy, Season Two of Joan, and King Arthur  
Summary: God wants her to help a few kindred souls and learn about sacrifice. Slight Sarmatian Ladies connection, as in it might be used again in SL.  
Words: 608  
General A/N: In the same spirit as 21 for 21, I present 22 for 22, fics requested by my lj readers. Various fandoms, characters and crossings contained within, all between 100 - 1000 words long  
A/N: So, this started off two different ways and changed about three. I liked this idea best, but might use the others at a later time.  
Dedication:To fufumira , who requested the characters and the quote.**  
**

**_Twenty-Two for Twenty-Two_**

_Works in Mysterious Ways_

_Arcadia, Maryland_

_All I wanted was a white knight_  
_With a good heart, soft touch, fast horse_

_~ This Kiss, Faith Hill_

* * *

Joan could barely believe what she was hearing. She stared at the Cute God who'd first approached her over two years ago in disbelief. Was God for real? She was supposed to sign up for the Exchange student program and go to England for six months?

"Yes, Joan, I'm for real," God smirked at her annoyingly.  
"You want me to get out of the country - for what?"  
"Do as I ask, Joan."  
"Yeah, because the last two years haven't been crazy enough. And what about Ryan? Aren't I supposed to be watching out for him?"  
"Joan, I'm asking you to broaden your horizons. Think of it as a vacation, Joan. A reprieve from all of the drama in your life."

"Oh, so God's resorted to bribes now, hmm?" Joan muttered as God walked away, giving her a little wave as he left. "I am so over the wave!"

* * *

"Is Adam going?" Helen Giaradi asked, frowning as her daughter packed for her first overseas trip. "Or Grace?"  
"No," Joan sighed. "I just wanna go to England, Mom. Something new and - something new."  
"I thought all the new things were going to stop..."

"Mom! Everybody goes to Europe in their senior year. It's not that weird, okay?" Joan groaned, slamming the lid closed on her suitcase. "Its just a normal trip"

* * *

South of Hadrians Wall, England  
Two Weeks Later

Joan had rolled out of bed begrudgingly. She didn't want to go see some bizarre fifth century monument to some dead knight. But her host family had insisted it was a sight not to be missed. It was half of a worn-down sword with a metal ring tied to it. She wasn't finding it all that impressive or awe-inspiring.

"Its not the sword that people find so impressive, Joan," an elderly man - or a version of God said to her.

"Let me guess, it was his undying devotion and faith in you?" Joan sighed.

"Sir Dagonet of Sarmatia didn't believe in me, much like you didn't at first. He was a pagan, who sacrificed himself to help save hundreds of people from being massacred by the invading Saxons. He was enlisted at the age of nine to become a soldier. He was ten when he first killed a man. He had a deep loyalty to his leader and friends."

"How did he die?" Joan asked, losing a bit of her previous annoyance with him.

"He tried to break the ice, to open a gap between his group and a legion of Saxons warriors. For love."

"He did it for love?" Joan asked, sniffling a little. It seemed like this knight had lived an awful life. "For who?"

"For his friends, for a child, for her," God nodded at a young woman a few years older than Joan, heavily pregnant and staring wistfully out at the churning water. A tall man, who looked like he'd seen plenty of wars himself stood behind her protectively.

"Her? How could he die for her? She -"

"Love, like every force in nature, knows no bounds or restrictions, Joan."

"Are you telling me love made him die for a woman fifteen hundred years in the future? That she's somehow connected to him?"

"Everything's connected, Joan."

Joan watched as the woman brushed a tear from her cheek, and how the man kissed her fingers. God brushed a tear from his own cheek, and Joan frowned at him.

"I'm a sucker for romance," he sighed. "You should introduce yourself, Joan."

"To them?"

"Yes, to them. Get to know the nature of sacrifice."

"Why? Am I gonna have to sacrifice myself? Didn't I already learn this?"

"We never stop learning, Joan."


	2. As I Lay Dying: 22 for 22

Series:22 for 22  
Title: As I Lay Dying  
Author: Jmaria  
Rating: FR-15  
Disclaimer: Bruckheimer and Fuqua owns them. I own the plot.  
Fandom(s): King Arthur  
Character(s): Tristan/OFC  
Spoilers: The movie  
Summary: Her ghost is with me, never leaving  
Words: 212  
A/N: Could be considered a slight little history of Tristan for _Sarmatian Ladies  
_Dedication: To cutemara, who requested the characters and the quote source. **  
**

**_Twenty-Two for Twenty-Two_**

_As I Lay Dying_

_The Battlefield_

_I can't be as sorry as you think I should_  
_But I still love you more than anyone else could_

_~ Make This Go On Forever, Snow Patrol_

* * *

He could feel the blade, could feel his life coming to an end even before he hit the ground. He had not failed, not entirely. Tristan, Sarmatian warrior, had held off the enemy for as long as he could. His eyes stared up at his hawk, watching her circle above. One word - one thought crossed his mind as he lay dying.

__

Isolde...

.

Giggling children running in a field together, hands clasped as they fell in the high grass. Her smiling face beaming up at him, the feel of her hand on his cheek as she reached up to kiss him. Another image of the two children, not much older carving apples. Rotted bits unusable for the meal being playfully tossed at each other. And the brief moment, where her eyes had held only hurt, only pain in his parting. Her words, her painful words that no matter what they meant to him, he could never do as she had asked. As he lay dying, he thought fleetingly of the love he lost as he watched her namesake fly across the sky.


	3. Draw the Curtains: 23 for 23

Series: 23 for 23  
Title: Thirteen: Draw the Curtains From Your Heart  
Author: Jmaria  
Rating: FR-15  
Disclaimer: I own the World Walker, Joss Whedon owns BtVS, Bruckheimer & Fuqua own this version of King Arthur.  
Spoilers: General knowledge for both KA and the series, and is set in my Sarmatian Ladies verse. Elaine!Buffy and past!Arthur  
Series Summary: Twenty-three stories and crossings of worlds (read: insanity) to celebrate twenty-three years.  
Part Summary: Conversations about past lives.  
Words: 350  
A/N: First quote comes from the third into, second comes from _The Wizard and I_ by Carol Shelley & Idina Menzel.

Dedication: To xgirl2222 for the fandoms and prompt.

**__**

23 for 23

  
Thirteen: Draw the Curtains From Your Heart__

There was nothing worth wanting. The gift she got was a face of reality scooped up with the need to continually pretend that it was going to be just fine when she knew it was never going to be just fine again.

He'll say to me, 'I see who you truly are, a girl on whom I can rely.'

* * *

The house was just beginning to settle down for the night, and Buffy couldn't understand how her sister did it. Living with all these _guys_. Of course, she'd had to put up with all those girls back in Sunnydale. The guys had to be easier to cope with on a day to day basis. And the line to the bathroom had to be shorter, right?

"You couldn't sleep, either?" the voice made her tense up, but not jump.

She was the world's oldest surviving Chosen slayer. She did _not _get creeped out by the hot doctor who would be king. Or _had_ been King. Whatever. Buffy glanced up at Arthur - _Artie_, as Dawn and them called him - and could see why a girl would get wrapped up in him. Like Gwen. She was over the moon for him -

__

That thrice-damned Woad is the reason my beloved is in the ground! I would make a sacrifice to the darkest of gods to avenge his death and punish those who brought it upon him!

Buffy's head swam as centuries old memories flooded her mind. Arthur's arms wrapped around her, keeping her steady as he had once so long ago. How did they live with this past lives crap?

"Not very easily," Arthur smiled sadly at her.

"Huh?"

"You asked how we live with it? Remembering every false step we've ever made and the price of each mistake? Its not easy. And forgiving isn't much easier."

"I did something bad. Back when I was Elaine, didn't I?" Buffy asked nervously.

"You don't remember?"

"Bits and pieces. There are all these kids and -" a sob passed her lips. "And so much blood. And _I'm_ the one holding the blade. _I'm _the one making it happen. Why? What happened?"

"I failed my men, and you couldn't forgive me," Arthur said sadly, looking and stepping away from her. "But you've more than made up for the blood you've spilt in another life by all the ones you've saved in _this_ life."

"Doesn't that go for you too, Doc?"

"I can only hope."


	4. Dead and Buried: 23 for 23

Series: 23 for 23  
Title: Twenty: Dead and Buried  
Author: Jmaria  
Rating: FR-15  
Disclaimer: I own the World Walker, Joss owns BtVS, Bruckheimer & Co. owns KA.  
Spoilers: Series, Movie, & up to the latest bit of _Sarmatian Ladies_.  
Series Summary: Twenty-three stories and crossings of worlds (read: insanity) to celebrate twenty-three years.  
Part Summary: Vi & 'Galahad' have a 'private moment' in the kitchen.  
Words: 456  
A/N: First quote comes from the fourth into, second comes from _Glamorous Life_ by Eden's Crush. These last four didn't have requests. They seemed to be just general ideas I scribbled down at the time (technically two, but whatevs.)

_**23 for 23**  
Twenty: Dead and Buried_

_The World shifted slightly to the left and it had nothing to do with the copious amount of liquor involved at all._

_She said 'I need a man's man, baby, diamonds and furs. Love would only go to my head.'_

Vi couldn't help but to glance over at the room Dawn had been closeted in since they'd brought Dagonet home. She couldn't believe that Dawn had been lucky enough to find her beloved again. Vi's head jerked up as that thought crossed her mind. Where had that come from?

"Couldn't sleep?"

Vi jumped as Garrett set a hand on her shoulder. She managed to school her instincts for the first time in days and _didn't_ deck him. Would the ex-knight ever not set her nerves on edge? Cause this was getting old really, _really_ fast.

"With everything that's gone down, how can anyone?" Vi shrugged, glancing out the window.

"It's been a day, hasn't it?" Garrett gave her one of those cute little smiles. Dammit! _Annoying_ not cute. _Nothing _about Garrett was cute.

"You can say that again."

Vi wouldn't be the first to make eye contact. Because she'd be giving in, and she hadn't done that in a long time. It seemed like a lifetime, and maybe it was. Maybe those dreams were more than dreams.

"Do you dream of it?" Garrett asked quietly.

"Dream of what?" She was not admitting to anything if he wasn't. Because it would hurt too much to think of that.

"Do you dream about the day you gutted me?"

Vi glanced away, not able to own up to those nightmares. She'd done it to protect her sister-in-arms, and she'd regretted it the moment she watched the light slip from his eyes. But she couldn't deny that she'd done that in some past life gone horribly wrong. She had slain a knight of legend. She'd done it for what she'd thought was a noble reason. She hadn't know that she was deadly wrong.

"Do you dream about killing _her_?" Vi turned back to him, her eyes unwavering as she spoke.

"No."

"I dream in spurts of ugly, mischievous times, Galahad. I dream of girls torn apart by grief and anguish. And the only way I knew how to make that stop was to keep them from being hurt further. Even if I was in the wrong, I couldn't let any more pain come to my sisters."

She turned away, pausing near Dagonet's doorway, to listen to Dawn's quiet murmurs to the love of her life. Once, in her past, she'd wanted to have a mate to whisper to. Part of her wished that it was the man behind her she could be that mate. And then her sister had died, and she'd felt a need to avenge those hurts.

"Gawain and I didn't slay Isolde, Viviane, " Garrett stood behind her now, his hand gently on her shoulder.

"I know that _now_," Vi whispered brokenly. "Elaine and Mordred did that."


End file.
